114 DEEP SEA FISHES. 
latter reaching little if any behind the middle of the eye. In other 
respects the agreement is close. 
Station. Latitude. Longitude. Depth. Temperature, Bottom. 
3391 7° 33! 40” N. 79° 43/ 20” W. 153 fathoms 55.8° F. Gn. M. 
3355 HOMO QOING 80° 55’ W. 182 3 54a 1o RB: Bk. g. sh. 
3367 5° 31! 30” N. 86° 52’ 30” W. LOO) ese BY Ps hal Oe Rocky. 
DISCOBOLES. 
From a partial examination of the collection it was shown, in “The 
Discoboli,” 1892, p. 8, that the distribution of this group extended under 
the tropics on the sea bottom from the Arctic to the Antarctic Ocean. 
Since the material has been studied the evidence has proved to be even 
more conclusive than was supposed at that time. There are six new species 
in the lot, taken between two degrees and thirty degrees of north latitude, 
at depths of 511 to 1825 fathoms, and in temperatures varying from 35.8 to 
41.8 degrees Fahrenheit. These low temperatures are suggestive of distri- 
bution quite to the neighborhood of the poles; they approximate so much 
to those given by Nansen and others in the farthest north that with the 
animal life known to inhabit the region the presumption would appear to 
be warranted. As yet Discoboles are unknown from the Indian Ocean and 
the Western Pacific; neither the “Challenger” nor the “ Investigator” 
secured any. ‘There is some likeness between the distribution of the 
Discoboles. to that of Cottus and its closer allies; whether this has any 
bearing on derivation is yet to be decided. It may be that the discovery 
of Cottus bathybius Giint. in the western Pacific is to be followed by knowl- 
edge of new Discoboles from the same parts of the world. 
The species here described were all taken from tracts of soft mud and 
ooze on the bottom of the sea, locations in which ventral disks must be of 
little use to the fishes, and naturally the disks are more or less obsolete. 
On one of the species the disk is present but very small; on four of the 
others the disk has disappeared but more or less of the pelvis remains, see 
Plate XXVIII., fig. 2° to 24 and Plate X XIX. figs. 1, 2, and 3. On account 
of the presence of the pelvis, and of the amount of compression of the head 
and body the name Merophorus angustifrons has been given to one of the 
species. The pores connecting with the lateral system are large in all the 
present species; the system itself is confined to the head, as heretofore 
noted for the group. The eyes in all are comparatively large, adapted no 
